Deed Restrictions in Cumberland County: The Golf-Community HOA Layer

Two layers of rules, not one -- and the private layer covers most of the inventory

A 2006 land-use memo prepared for Cumberland County's regional water-supply planning found that the Fairfield Glade, Lake Tansi, and Cumberland Cove/Cumberland Lakes areas together account for roughly 69% of the county's undeveloped residential parcels. That figure is now nearly two decades old, but the underlying dynamic -- these named communities holding the large majority of the county's raw residential-lot inventory -- is corroborated by current real-estate coverage of the county, and it means most searches for a buildable residential lot in Cumberland County will functionally land inside one of these HOA-governed developments rather than turning up a standalone rural parcel subject only to county rules.

Fairfield Glade itself is the largest of these: a resort and retirement community with roughly 9,150 residents as of the 2020 Census, built around five golf courses totaling 90 holes, and governed by the Fairfield Glade Community Club as the property owners' association under a Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions dated 1997. Lake Tansi is a comparable planned community elsewhere in the county with its own separate association and governing documents. In both cases, that private governance layer sits on top of -- not instead of -- Cumberland County's own countywide zoning ordinance, administered through the county's Regional Planning Commission and Codes Department.

What the HOA layer actually controls that county zoning doesn't reach

County zoning sets the outer bounds of what's allowed on a parcel -- district, general use category, and any county-level setback or subdivision requirement. A community HOA's recorded covenants operate independently and typically go considerably further: architectural review of house plans before construction begins, minimum home square-footage requirements, restrictions on exterior materials and colors, mandatory annual or special assessments that fund association-owned amenities (golf courses and clubhouse facilities, in Fairfield Glade's case), and often a specific policy on short-term rentals that can be more restrictive than anything the county or state requires. None of this shows up on a county zoning map, and none of it is enforced by the county -- it's enforced by the association itself, through its own governing board and, where covenants allow, through liens or legal action against a noncompliant owner.

This matters specifically for short-term-rental plans: Tennessee's statewide Short-Term Rental Unit Act limits how far a local government -- a city or county -- can go in restricting short-term rentals, but that state-level protection is aimed at government regulation and doesn't reach a privately recorded HOA's own covenant restrictions the same way. A lot's county zoning district might permit short-term rental use in principle, while the HOA's own declaration separately requires registration, caps the number of active rental permits, or bars the use outright -- confirm the specific community's current short-term-rental policy directly with its association before assuming state law settles the question for a lot inside Fairfield Glade, Lake Tansi, or a comparable development.

What to request before closing on a lot in one of these communities

1. The current recorded Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions for the specific community and phase/section the lot sits in -- covenants can vary between sections of the same development, and an amendment history matters more than the original recording date alone.
2. The association's current assessment schedule, including any pending or recently approved special assessments -- these fund shared amenities and can represent a real, recurring cost beyond county property taxes.
3. The association's specific architectural-review requirements and any minimum-home-size or build-timeline requirement, before assuming a lot is simply buildable once county permitting requirements are met.
4. If short-term rental income is part of the plan, the association's current written short-term-rental policy -- registration, caps, or an outright restriction -- independent of what county zoning or Tennessee's Short-Term Rental Unit Act otherwise allows.
5. Whether the lot itself, or the section it sits in, is still within the developer's original control period or has transitioned to owner-controlled association governance, which can affect how easily covenants can currently be amended.